Teenagers’ view of additional education classes: targeted and effective aspects

Transformational processes that affected all spheres of education and society’s activities contributed to the fact that the state and business began paying attention to the potential of the sphere of additional education for children. Its implementation through, first of all, the adoption and promotion of the Concept of the development of additional education for children, creation of public and private studios and clubs allowed expanding the range of opportunities for students’ development, often making decisions themselves when choosing additional education services. This choice depends on the goals that students put forward at different age periods, as well as on the self-assessment of the results achieved. While in Russian megacities, special attention has been paid to the targeted and effective aspects of choosing additional education classes in recent years, in regions, such as the Vologda Oblast, these issues remain unstudied. Based on this, the purpose of the study is to identify the guidelines that the Vologda Oblast teenagers follow when choosing additional education classes, as well as estimated results, obtained during training. The information base is the data of a questionnaire survey of 300 teenagers of the Vologda Oblast who attend additional educational programs. Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a survey in June-September 2020 using online Google forms. The research has shown that for the Vologda Oblast teenagers, as well as representatives of Russian megacities, as they grow up, the dominant goals of choosing associations for additional education are characterized by a shift from the desire to develop their abilities, broaden their horizons (developing orientation) to the desire to prepare for the Basic State Examination and the Unified State Examination (compensating orientation). During the training process, most of them achieved the planned result. However, according to individual goals (to gain knowledge and skills that will help in acquiring a future profession; to learn any specific activity), the respondents, who often live in rural areas, revealed insufficient formation of skills and abilities.